head over heels...

I have a problem and if you peeked into Mia's closet you'd know what I'm talking about. You see, I can't stop (won't stop) buying clothes for her. I must be living vicariously through her because ruffle bums, frilly clothes and lots of bows would look downright ridiculous on me... and no, I don't think that's fair ;) I have so much fun getting Mia ready each morning but when it's my turn? Ugh! I can't find a thing to wear even though I have a closet full of clothes. I've kind of been in a rut when it comes to my wardrobe these days...

top: c/o Head Over Heels pants: H&M shoes: c/o Head Over Heels

...until Head Over Heels came my rescue :) Seriously though, this top has so many gorgeous, fun little details including the high/low look, which I tend to avoid when shopping for myself. Letsbehonest, this whole outfit was a little outta my comfort zone despite the fact that I would be totally jealous of someone else wearing the exact same thing. But these shoes are a hot little number and I couldn't wait to throw them on for date night :) I'm still getting back into the practice of wearing heels and until I can achieve it gracefully, I'll be day dreaming about wearing these every single day, ha! 

I was a little hesitant to find out what Eric's reaction would be to my outfit (I shouldn't care, but I like impressing my man!) and surprisingly (to me, remember, outta my comfort zone!), he loved it! As lame as this sounds, I feel so rejuvenated and I am excited to start focusing on me a little more (again). I plan on updating my wardrobe with a few other fun little numbers and to start enjoying getting ready for the day again... instead of avoiding it ;)

Be sure to check out Head Over Heels and get 20% off your order using the code "blogger20" at checkout (expires July 6th). 

go to sleep little baby

 One time, ONE time Mia fell asleep sitting up. Thanks to my video monitor I saw what happened and was able to take pictures and a video of it. Best thing EVER! Ha ha!

I thought becoming a brand new mom would be easy peasy! I was the queen of babysitting while growing up and I was just darn good with kids. Then Mia was born and no one was telling me her schedule, no one was telling me the various reasons for her cries, I had to figure it all out on my own. I battled myself on every single decision that I hadn't solidified before she was born. But one thing I knew beforehand was that a night time routine was important to me. Starting the day after we brought Mia home from the hospital, I established what our routine was going to be for bedtime. Bath time, meal time, "night-night" time as we now say to Mia :)
In the first few weeks of her life, I had convinced myself that Mia would instantly calm down when we gave her a bath because she knew it was bed time... when in reality that was just my sleep deprivation talking to me. Bath time actually saved my sanity because I knew I would feed Mia, put her down then put myself to bed as well. We stuck with the routine because it's what kept me going each day. It's something that calmed me because I knew what to expect during that time, while I felt like I was barely keeping my head above water the rest of the day, if that makes sense? As Mia grew we adjusted the routine bit by bit. When she started eating solids it was so messy that we fed her before bath time, and I would nurse her after. Once we stopped nursing I wanted to fill that space with night time prayers and a story. Turns out that Mia is so used to the routine that she has no patience for a bed time story. So after her bath Eric and I take turns giving her loves, we say a little prayer, lay her in bed and snuggle her up with her taggy, her teddy bear and a blanket :)
We rarely have to battle Mia once we lay her down for a nap or for the night. As long as she has her binky (dreading the day we take that away, I'm wishing I would have done it before she turned 1) she lays there until she falls asleep. There have been times where we've had to endure some crying, but not much. We usually don't let her cry for more than 5 minutes because we have learned that something is usually wrong (like a dirty diaper) before checking on her. It's rare, but some nights Mia just wants to cuddle. So if she's having a hard time going to sleep and keeps crying for us, I'll pull her out of bed and she will cuddle with one of us for a bit while we watch a show. I must admit that I don't hate this :) I know it's just an off night, and she will go back to putting herself to sleep like normal, and she won't be small enough for these snuggles much longer!
One of the best investments we made was buying a video monitor! This has helped me learn Mia's habits for sleeping. I can't hear the difference in her cries, but I know if she's crying for me if she's standing up, or if she's trying to cope herself to sleep when she's crying while still laying down. Plus we just love watching the things she does while playing in her crib (before or after sleep). One time I looked at the monitor just in time to see her do an accidental summercault, ha ha! For the most part, we have been blessed with a baby who doesn't battle nap and bed times and we are definitely grateful for that! There are so many battles that come with mommy hood... the less we have on our list, the better!

Like A Morning Cup of Coffee           The Not Quite Military Wife

From Here To Eternity               Words About Waverly

Pardon My French             Beautiful Family Affairs

My Delicious Adventure                  The Life Of Faith

Running From The Law             The Olive Tree          

June 26:       Bedtime Battles (nap or bedtime)

Thank you to everyone who linked up! I have learned so much from you and loved getting to know you better! The blogging community is so amazing and I'm grateful to have you all as part of my support system! xoxo

An InLinkz Link-up

just some randoms {18}

Mia thinks it's hilarious when Eric or I stick two binkies in our mouth (because playing binks with your daughter is totally normal...) and she has finally discovered how to do it herself! She thinks she's pretty awesome :)

Moccs c/o Freshly Picked

Onesie wearin' is totally acceptable on an 18 month old, right? Because she just might be wearing these all summer long, despite her closet full of adorable outfits. She just seems like a little baby, my little baby, when she's wearing one and I just can't help myself :) Trying to keep her little as long as possible!

 

Headband c/o Jumping and Jellybean

Mia is officially obsessed with wearing shoes. It doesn't matter who they belong to, she has to put them on and take 'em for a "test drive" ha ha! Lately she's been wearing my heels and it kills me!

This is like a painfultotheeyes bad picture but I had to share! About a month ago I gave Mia a few different "workout outfits" to choose from and this was the winner! She finally got to wear it when we spent the day at Zion National Park yesterday!

Mia's aunt gave her this super huge bat and it's her new favorite toy! She was so happy when she got it that she even stopped to flash a fake smile and wave at the camera, ha!

you are what you eat...

... or something like that, right? I've been putting off the making of this post because I have no pictures of my food. Major blogger fail right here, ha ha! But I suck at taking pictures of my food so you can just use your imagination, right? A few weeks ago I shared a bit about my fitness routine, so today I want to share how my eating habits of changed.
Before I got pregnant with Mia, I didn't really give a second thought to how I ate. As long as I had fruit or a veggie with each meal, I called it good! We ate out a lot (until we cut it back to once a week to save money), ate lots of processed foods, and I was scared of recipes with lots of ingredients. I also had this bad habit of eating past the point of being full. I would often walk (waddle, roll, you get the picture) away from a meal with a bloated belly and have a stomach ache the rest of the night from eating too much. But I worked out (minimally) so I didn't see that there was a problem!
Then I got pregnant and suddenly I was taking care of a microscopic human being and I had someone other than myself to care about. And I cared a lot! I had been pretty good about taking vitamins before, but even Eric made sure I hadn't forgotten before bed each night... he suddenly cared a lot more as well! Luckily for me, I never got morning sickness (my whole pregnancy, so lucky!) but I did have food aversions my first trimester. I didn't really want to eat but I knew I had to, so I had lots of fresh salads, fruits and veggies. I would snack on handfuls of almonds (hate those!) and smoothies. Our meals were pretty bland but they were healthy! Our meals got back to normal once I was past the food aversions phase, but we still ate way more fruits and veggies than before, and I switched things out (ie: white bread to whole wheat bread).
Once Mia was born I was even more conscious of what I ate since I was nursing her. Soda went out the door, I wasn't willing to risk the caffeine keeping Mia up at night! Now that I've been off soda, I actually get a stomach ache when I have more than a couple sips of it... that's obviously a good and bad thing ;) More and more fresh fruits/veggies were included in our diets and I started searching for healthier recipes and getting more "daring" in the kitchen. Sometime between Mia being born and now, I completely stopped buying bread (I only buy it for specific recipes, and make those rarely so it's a definite treat), chips, cereal, and treats, totally switched to brown rice or quinoa and I limited our pasta dishes to once a week. We still do white pasta because Eric hates wheat and compromise is important to us when it comes to food. I can force myself to eat something even if I don't totally love it, but if Eric's not on board I just can't. I'm trying to develop a good, healthy relationship with food in our home, and if Eric hates everything I make, he'll just go grab take out. Compromise. We eat left overs for lunch instead of sandwiches. I really do my best to avoid frozen or canned fruits/veggies (which isn't too hard) and keep my fridge stocked full of fresh produce. Each meal is free game and I hide as many veggies in them as possible! Mia is so used to seeing green and orange stuff in her food and she eats it with no problems... Eric on the other hand, he's still a work in progress :) I'm still working on making the switch to wheat flour, and it may never fully happen. But I'm slowly mixing wheat flour in the white flour to our pancake mixes, etc. I make most of our food from scratch (like 98% of it) and try to follow a lot of the clean eating/whole 30/paleo recipes. I'm not as extreme and can't 100% dive in to those "life styles" because I've got a husband and daughter who would need to be on board... so compromise it is :)
Basically I spend a whole lot more time in the kitchen than I ever used to. It is more work to eat healthier but it just seems completely natural to me now. It doesn't feel like any more work now that it's something I want and crave. Being smaller now (after having a baby!) and stronger than ever before in my life... it's proof that working out and eating right is what is best for me! I just feel good, you know? But that doesn't mean I don't like to indulge, I love it! So treats will never be banished from our home, I'll just tailor some of the treats to make 'em a little healthier ;) And by the time date night rolls around, we just plain deserve a good, hearty ice cream treat and you better believe I feel no guilt while eating it! Same with vacation treats! I refuse to feel guilt when it comes to food.

 via

Because life is short, do your best to be a better you, which in my opinion, includes indulging without the guilt :) Compromise is what works for us as long as we have the end goal of just. being. better!

P.S. Check out the giveaway on my Instagram for Snap Bibs! This is one all you momma's and future momma's want to win!

amusement park kind of weekend

We just had the best kind of weekend with Eric's family, and luckily it fell on the same weekend as Mia's 18 month mark, so she got one heckuva half birthday celebration ;) Turns out our tiny one and a half year old is a big ol' thrill seeker which made the weekend even funner!
Saturday we played long and hard at Lagoon with the whole famdamily. This is such a fun tradition that we look forward to each year! I was kind of worried how Mia would do with the rides because parents aren't allowed to be in the area, you have to stay outside the gates. I didn't want Mia's ticket to go to waste and I didn't know if she would sit for the rides... but I had no reason to worry! Mia LOVED the rides! She seriously couldn't get enough! She didn't want any help on the merry go round, in fact, I couldn't even touch the animal she was sitting on. Girlfrien' is a big girl now, and incredibly independent, ha! She was ridiculously impatient while waiting in lines, she would pull on our shoulders, arms, hands to get us to move forward. When that didn't work she took matters into her own hands and tried to climb up the little gates, squeeze between the bars, and she even attempted to slide underneath the gate (the whole 2 inches between the bar and cement) to get to the rides! The rides always ended too quickly for her liking, she would shoo us away while trying to re-buckle the safety belt so that she wouldn't have to get off :)
As much as we loved watching Mia ride the rides, we also loved watching her play with her cousins! She's still in her own little world and very independent when it comes to playing, so it was fun to see her interaction with the kids! She loves her cousins! Eric and I got to sneak off and ride the adult rides with our siblings while grandparents watched the kids... they are saints! And Mia didn't even miss us, so there's that :)
It's also tradition to stuff our faces with ice cream at Lagoon. They always have the best flavors and the biggest scoops. Well, Eric's ice cream was a little on the humongous size... he had a cute little teenager scooping his when he put on his charming smile and threw a couple winks in her direction. I'm hardly kidding here, he joked about putting her muscles to good use and hooking him up with ice cream and she did her best to impress him! It worked! Eric's 2 scoop ice cream turned into at least 6 scoops, and I can't help but laugh because I was that same little teenager being wooed into "hooking a brotha up" as Eric put it not too long ago... at least it doesn't seem that long ago ;)
Overall this day was definitely one for the books... so. much. fun! We can't wait to get together with family again in a couple weeks!

happy 18 months to my love bug

I'm not really sure how it's possible, but Mia is a year and a half old! It's been the funnest 18 months and we are so blessed with every second we've had Mia in our lives! I can't wait for the many more years to come with our favorite little love bug!

- Mia had her second haircut and loved it just as much as the first!
- She has pretty much mastered eating with a fork! She can eat her yogurt with a spoon really well, but I don't dare let her try a spoon with anything else.
- Teething is a beast now that she's getting her canines. She has only had 1 cut through so far, and that was a nightmare! I'm not looking forward to the other 3 (she is working on her second one right now).
- Mia has added "go" and "outside" (ow-iiiiiiiiiii) to her vocabulary. She also says "buh-bye" instead of just "bye" :)
- She can officially climb up all of our couches and kitchen chairs, yikes! She hasn't figured out going from the chairs to the table yet... and I'm dreading the day she does!
- Mia figured out how to blow bubbles in the water... all by herself! This is kind of a big deal since Mia isn't very adventurous in water. She will stand, kneel or sit, but she doesn't lay on her belly or do any of the fun stuff... which is fine with me until she learns to swim ;)      
- It's finally nursery time at church! I've been waiting for this time to come for months, ha ha!
- Mia can officially (and has been able to, I just forget to share) point to her (or our) mouth, ears, eyes and nose (and she says the last two)!
- I took a picture of Mia's first band aid (the first time she needed one not because of shots) because I thought it was a milestone to record, but she's had multiple band aids in the last couple weeks and it's just really sad for my momma heart, ha!  
- Mia still wears size 3 diapers.
- She wears some 6-9 month outfits, mostly 12 month and a few 18 month clothes (she still wears her 0-6 month swim suit, the first one we ever bought her! ha). She's up to size 4 shoes now! We love our tiny baby!

to blog... or not to blog

my mini blogger :)

The first few weeks, maybe even months, after Mia was born I was understandably overwhelmed with... life. I had a harder time adjusting to motherhood than I was expecting (I didn't realize how much sleep deprivation, a healing body and nursing would take out of me, aside from figuring out life with a newborn)! I was kind of distraught (I blame it on the sleep deprivation) because I thought I'd never be able to stay awake through a TV show, let alone a movie, ever again (ha ha), and I just knew that blogging was to be a thing of the past... I didn't know how to juggle it all! But blogging meant so much to me! It was (is) my way of documenting our lives, and I have made some of the most incredible friendships because of my little corner of the internet. I was so sad to think of losing all the connections I'd made...

Luckily I adjusted, just like everyone else does, and I continued blogging ;) I've made even more amazing friendships and I continue to be inspired and uplifted by you amazing bloggers! The support we provide each other is just the best! But it is still an adjustment for me to find the time to blog. As Mia has grown, became mobile, grew out of multiple naps, etc, I've had to change my blogging strategies. As of late, I have to wake up at the crack of dawn to get my blog stalking in. I catch up on my blog reading before Mia wakes for the day, then I do my best to fit in some blogging during Mia's nap. Depending on how much house work, hair and make up, etc I need to accomplish before she wakes, I can pound out my next blog post (I'm not good with writing up several posts ahead of time) and catch up on more reading.

Some days I just can't keep up with everything, so blogging is one of the first things to go. Being a mom and wife are #1 on my priority list and it needs to stay that way. So even though I'm not always able to read/comment on blogs each day, it's something I love to do and will make up for it on the days that I do have the time! My little corner of the internet has brought so much good into my life... there's not even the slightest chance I'm willing to let myself get too busy to let that go :)

Like A Morning Cup of Coffee           The Not Quite Military Wife

From Here To Eternity               Words About Waverly

Pardon My French             Beautiful Family Affairs

My Delicious Adventure                  The Life Of Faith

Running From The Law             The Olive Tree          

June 19:       How to make time to blog in the busyness of motherhood

June 26:       Bedtime Battles (nap or bedtime)

Come link up with us every Thursday!

An InLinkz Link-up

homemade oreo cookies

You guys, I'm not even kidding you when I say I have the most fool-proof, delicious recipe that you must try asap! Much to Eric's horror, he discovered that baking is not one of my strong suits after we were married. I can't be positive that he would have continued dating me if he had found out before hand... I decided to be an awesome wife and spoiled Eric with homemade oreos for Father's Day. They turned out so. freaking. good. In fact, they are already gone! Okay, so I put some of the cookies in the freezer for later, but that doesn't mean I'm going to admit how many we ate in 3 short days... I had so many friends ask for the recipe so here I am, sharing the easiest, most delish recipe for homemade oreo cookies!

For the cookies: (This super simple and yummy part of the recipe is from my sister in law, Alycia!)
3 packages Duncan Hines Devil’s Food Cake mix

6 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

Directions:

Mix ingredients in a Bosch or Kitchen Aid. You can start mixing it with a blender, but eventually you will have to work the mix together with your hands because the mix gets too heavy for a blender.  Roll into walnut size balls.  Do not press.  Bake at 375 for 8 – 12 minutes.

When you take them out of the oven tap pan on the counter, this will flatten the cookies. I hold the pan up a few inches from the counter and drop it. You can do this a few times depending on how flat your want your cookie.
(I just copied and pasted her directions because... it's exactly what I did and they turned out perfect!) 

For the icing:
1/4 cup room temperature butter (I use unsalted)
1/4 cup shortening
1 3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
(My heart just dropped to my stomach while typing this as I just realized I TOTALLY forgot the vanilla, but then I remembered how freakin' bomb these tasted. The icing was still AMAZING! So use the vanilla, or don't! You'll love it either way.)

Directions:
Beat the ingredients quickly (I used speed 3 on my Bosch), it takes a bit to come together. Dump icing between two cookies and try not to eat them all in one sitting!

** I stored our cookies (for the short 3 days that they lasted) in a gallon sized zip lock bag. They softened even more in the first 24 hours after being in the bag!
** This produces at least 3 dozen cookies. I frosted cookies until the icing was all gone, and stuck the left over cookies (with no icing) in the freezer for a later date.

my top 10

 How adorable is this little number for the 4th of July?! You can get your own patriotic dress from Olive The Things for 10% off using the code "MIA10"

Laura posted her list of top 10's, and after seeing a few more of my friends post I decided I had to join! My list is pretty simple, but what can I say? I'm easy to please! I'm not positive that Eric would agree with that statement, ha!
1- Holidays.
2- White chocolate covered popcorn.
3- Having my hair played with. One of my all time faves!
4- Going to bed about 30 minutes after Eric. He is asleep but not too far gone... just enough that he turns into one cuddly husband and I love it!
5- Vacations.
6- Hearing Mia say "momma". She rarely says it even though she knows how... so it totally melts my heart each time I hear it!
7- Finishing a race or a hike. Just don't ask me how I feel about the whole enduring until I finish part ;)
8- Movies. Date night is rare around these parts and we always choose to go to a movie, so I seriously get butterflies when we walk into a theater and I smell the popcorn and hear the bass of the theaters vibrating through the walls because it means DATE NIGHT with my main man! :)
9- Spending my day at the pool, on a boat at the lake, or on a beach at the ocean. The water is seriously my happy place.
10- Friendships via blogging/instagram. But seriously! I've made more than one life long (real life) friend because of social media! This is an amazing community to be a part of! Speaking of... I was included in Emma and Chrissy's summer gift exchange which was so much fun! Sarah sent us the sweetest package! Mia wore her outfit on Saturday and I somehow didn't get one good picture of it #fail! Anyway, her outfit and my earrings are gorgeous... we LOVE it all! Thank you, Sarah! xoxo

Let me know if you post a list of your top 10 faves!

cele-bra-tion.

I love me a screaming toddler... pictures are so fun these days!

Father's Day weekend was another simple, relaxing one for the books! Except for when I ran a 5k with Laura Saturday morning. We haven't been hitting the pavement as well as we did last summer (we need to get back on track!) but we kicked butt during our race, if I say so myself! I got 2nd in my age group and Laura got 1st in hers! This is the first time either of us medaled in a race!

Oh and then we went to the grocery store four different times, f o u r, on Saturday because we kept forgetting various items. The worst part was when one tiny human being turned into a monster because she was beyond ready for dinner, and Eric couldn't get the grill to start... because we were out of propane. Thus entering his billionth trip to the store. I'm good if I don't go grocery shopping for the next month... except I need to go today.

And then there's the time when Mia woke me up at the crack of dawn Sunday morning (this waking up with the sun stuff is for the birds, Mia, THE BIRDS!) so I baked my little hiney off all morning long! This is rare for me, and it's even more rare when my baking turns out, so Eric was pleasantly surprised with his Father's Day homemade oreos! It was my first time ever making them and I've had so many ask for the recipe so I'll definitely be sharing later this week!

Our weekend also consisted of lots of naps, spoiling Eric for Father's Day (although he did get stuck with one diaper change while I was making dinner, good timing Mia!), calling our dad's (I hope they know how much we love them!), no picture taking on Father's Day (the only one we got with Eric in it all weekend is that peach of a picture up top) because that's a huge gift for him, picture hater, and season 4 of Duck Dynasty. Because no Father's Day is complete for a small town, red neck wannabe, gun loving man without that hilariously ridiculous show! I hope your day was good, Eric!

Happy Father's Day

"A father's calling is eternal and it's importance transcends time. It is a calling for both time and eternity."

 -Ezra Taft Benson

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful, hard working men out there, especially our dads! And an even more special Happy Father's Day to the man that make our (mine and Mia's) world go 'round. Eric, you are the sweetest, most attentive, most loving daddy and Mia completely adores you! I love watching you two interact, it's like you're in your own little world together :) Thank you for working so hard for our little family, and loving us to no end! You're the BEST!

GIVEAWAY {Target or Amazon gift card}

 ava grace's closet // the not quite military wife 

 from here to eternity // the life of faith 

words about waverly // love danica

I'm so excited for today's giveaway! I have teamed up with some lovely bloggers to give you a fun summer giveaway!! One of you will win a $35 gift card to either Target OR Amazon...winners choice. Giveaway is open to everyone, just enter below (winner will be verified!) Good luck and happy weekend! xoxo

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